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Unfortunately, you’ve ended up in the rumor mill.
Now it was my turn to grimace. It figured.
It seems there are opposing views. Some believe the one source they heard it from while many are dismissing it as rumors about all the newcomers from the borderlands.Darla’s mental voice paused as she laughed out loud.Some are guessing I’ve hooked up with the prince, and a couple are putting bets on Maddox.
“Really?” That idea was incredibly amusing to me, and not because I had anything against Maddox, but imagining Kai wooing him like he tried to woo me was amazing. Actually, I’dpay money to see Mad Dog act the part of the female lead in a bodice ripper. He’d absolutely take it seriously, down to the costume, no matter how straight he was. If it came out that he was a theater kid, I wouldn’t have been surprised.
Yup. They think the princes “peculiar tastes” are why he was gone for so long, and why he’s refused to produce an heir.
I thought of how much Kai had sacrificed for his country, how much he’d bled, wept, and fought for the citizens who lived in their happy little bubble. “That’s fucking stupid.”
I know.
I groaned. “See, this is why I avoid people.”
“I thought it was because of your curse.”
“…it’s certainly a factor.”
Darla chuckled, and the conversation petered off once we stepped out of the storage-like hall we were in, and out through a set of double doors leading to an open yard.
I’d half expected the training area to be some elaborate, indoor enclosure with the usual absurd decorations, but instead, it was an outdoor space with a dirt-packed floor and different areas set up for multiple distances.
I picked out a weapons sparring area, a hand-to-hand one judging by the mats, and an archery area. Oh, wow, there was even a riding area.
“I’m going to go work with the training dummies,” Mad Dog said with an authoritative nod.
“Wait, why no sparring?” Darla asked. “You always loved sparring back at Canid.”
Did he? I had no idea about that. Then again, considering I made it my mission to avoid everyone, perhaps that wasn’t surprising.
“Ah, none of these wimps will fight me anymore. They’re soft, the lot of them.”
I wrinkled my nose. “Gross.”
But Darla was all smiles, and I saw pride flicker through her dark gaze. “Hey, Ayla.”
“Yeah?”
“What do you say we show them how it’s done?”
“Now, I’d be keen on that,” Mad Dog chipped in. “Both of you did well enough on our journey, but I’ve never gotten the chance to see you go hand-to-hand.”
That was because I never trained hand-to-hand in public outside of drills. As a healer, I wasn’t expected to fight. I was taught basics at my coven, but I wouldn’t hold a candle to Darla.
However, she wasn’t a shifter, and I was faster and stronger at that. So, it’d be her ability against my raw power.
That sounded pretty fun.
“You know what? Let’s do it.”
“Excellent.” Mad Dog grinned. “I’ll lead you over to the mats.”
He did just that, pulling hand and shin pads out of a nearby chest, then helmets.
“All right, imma say for the sake of this exercise, we’ve got no groin injuries, no finger or toe locks, and no purple nurples.” We both shot him a look at that, but he just held his hands up. “Hey, don’t shoot me for setting boundaries. I’ve seen some crazy shit go down on the sparring mat.”
“Yeah, but we’re not brainless alphas who are gonna go all aggro on each other,” Darla said primly. “We’re just, you know, showing these guys what it’s like to be a soldier on the borderlands.”
